


A Tempestuous Start

by owlways_and_forever



Series: Cemented in the Heart [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Durmstrang, Hogwarts Founders Era, foundation of durmstrang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:06:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24759037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlways_and_forever/pseuds/owlways_and_forever
Summary: The story of how Durmstrang came to be.
Series: Cemented in the Heart [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2029681
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	A Tempestuous Start

The sea swirled darkly, slamming into the cliffs over and over again, rain pelting the jagged rocks. Nerida stood at the edge, her toes curling tightly over the stones as her robes whipped in the wind. She felt as though the maelstrom in front of her was a perfect manifestation of the chaos that was raging inside her mind and her heart. She had rushed into things and made a mess of everything, and now she would have to make an even bigger mess just to undo it all. How was she going to manage it? She kicked a pebble over the edge of the cliff and watched it plunge into the water, imagining it following the violently swirling path of the whirlpool below. It felt like the trajectory of her life at the moment, a downward spiral, beating her to a pulp against sharp edges at every turn.

It had started just over a year earlier, on her twenty third birthday. Her family had been pressuring her to get married, to settle down and have a family. They weren't entirely out of line, either. All the other girls her age had been married for years - most had at least one child already. But Nerida had still been living with her parents and her younger brother, scribbling in her notebook about new spells, and they were getting tired of it. Her mother in particular was determined not to see her become a spinster.

Nerida didn't have many friends. She was quiet and contemplative and more interested in inventing than she was in marriage, and after a certain age, that had stopped being acceptable. So she had ended up alone in their city, with just her work. And she hadn't minded at all, until that birthday, when her parents had all but insisted she get married. They had invited Anastas to dinner, a respectable man who had lost his first wife - a viable option for marriage in their minds. He had been nice enough, intelligent and focused on his career, which suited Nerida just fine. She could be left alone for as much time as he liked, left to do her own thing. So she had agreed to marry him, and two months later, the thing was done, and she was his wife.

But it turned out that Anastas didn't want to leave her alone at all. He had wanted to assault her body relentlessly until he created a child in her, and then he wanted her to devote her life to serving him and raising their multitudes of children. She had no interest in any of that, but he was strong, and he was adamant, and society supported his line of thinking. She had little recourse. She had to suffer through the physical manifestations of his "love" - the bruises and the pains.

Nerida had begun to daydream about ways to get away from Anastas. She tried to think about what she wanted from life, what legacy she would like to leave behind. It had to be more than children. Children were fine, children were great. But children died, eventually, they didn't last. If her only legacy was children, then it would fade within generations. She had a vision of a sanctuary for witches like her - a place where they could go to learn and invent to their hearts' content and be safe the whole time. Nerida dreamt of a place like the great universities - a mix of educating younger witches and letting adults have free reign to research new advancements. She would likely never see it come to fruition, but it was a beautiful dream nonetheless.

She had met Tihomir two months ago, when she had sought sanctuary in the city's library. He was quiet, and intelligent, and absorbed in a mountain of books. They had begun talking, soon forming a friendship. He was concerned whenever he saw Nerida wince in pain as she shifted in her seat. But most importantly, when she shared her dream with him, he didn't think it was stupid or ridiculous. He shared it. Not quite shared it, actually. He wanted no ownership of it - it was _her_ dream, wholly and completely, and he didn't want to take any part of it from her. But he did want to support her and help her make it come true.

For the longest time, it had just been talk. The vaguest of plans. But on that morning, Nerida had made a decision that it had to be more. Everything had changed, twisted her deeper into the maelstrom of her life, and she knew it was time. She had gone to Tihomir with a bag packed with her few meager belongings - a few sets of robes and a blanket she had as a baby - and they had left the city together.

That was how she ended up standing on a cliff, overlooking the sea as it swirled in a violent torrent. She wondered if she was reading too much into the weather, or if it was somehow echoing her thoughts. Either way, it was appropriate. This was the spot. Far away from her family and her abusive husband. Far away from anyone who didn't understand her. This was where she would build her school, this was where she would raise her child. All she needed was a name. The tempest around her brought to might the expression _sturm und drang_ , and she knew what her school would be called. That very moment, as she stood on the cliff staring into the raging sea, was the moment that Durmstrang came to be.


End file.
